While for many of us Friday 13th may hold a certain amount of dread and is a sign of bad things to come, for Kendall Warren and his wife it meant only one thing. In May 2011 he netted a Michigan Mega Millions Lottery Win and suddenly found himself better off to the tune of $27,000 million.

Unlike many gambling fans, Kendall didn’t play the lottery on a regular basis, occasionally going for an easy pick ticket for either Mega Millions or Powerballwhen the urge took him.

As an aerospace engineer and mathematics king, he’s well aware of the odds against winning from the Mega Millions draw, about 175 million to 1 if you believe the experts. The 61 year old never really thought he would ever win but, like many of us, he also didn’t think there was any harm in trying his luck now and again.

He decided to check his Michigan Mega Millions ticket when he got to his office at the Parker Hannifin Corporation and the sudden realisation that he had won the Mega Millions lottery jackpot left him completely stunned. He had to get one of his colleagues to call home to his wife and tell her the good news.

Sue Warren was having a normal day when she got a mysterious message to contact her husband because there was an emergency. It didn’t once cross her mind that they had won the Michigan Mega Millions lottery jackpot and she thought that maybe something bad had happened to her beloved husband.

The winning numbers from Kendall’s quick pick for the Mega Millions draw were 03, 33, 39, 47, 53 and Mega Ball 09. He bought the ticket at a Circle K in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The store received a $50,000 bonus for selling the winning Mega Millions ticket.

Kendall said he could see the hand of God in their win and that he wasn’t planning on giving up his job as an aerospace engineer just yet. The couple chose to take the lump sum and netted $17,430,600 before tax for their Mega Millions lottery jackpot, a tidy sum to take into their future retirement.

The Mega Millions lottery doesn’t just help out those who win big in it. Almost 94 cents in every dollar spent goes to school initiatives and since the lottery began in 1972 $15 billion has been raised for education in Michigan.